Comets, cosmology and the Big Bang : from Halley to Hubble /: from Halley to Hubble. (2018)

• Record Type: Book
• Further Information: Note: Allan Chapman.
• Authors: Chapman, Allan, 1946-
• Contents: COntents ; Acknowledgments 18; Preface 21; 1 From the Beginning to 1700: The Origins of Astronomy ; The origins of astronomy 26; The earliest astronomers 27; What made the “Greek experience” 29; central to Western thought?; Medieval consolidation 32; Europe’s astronomical Renaissance 35; 2 Cosmology Begins at Home: Captain Edmond Halley, 41 ; FRS, RN, Astronomer, Geophysicist, and Adventurer; The schoolboy scientist 42; Early adventures: St Helena, Danzig, and across 44; Europe: the making of a physical scientist; Edmond Halley, the father of meteorology 47; and geophysics; Later adventures: Captain Halley RN takes 50; HMS Paramore among the icebergs; Professor Halley and the Great Aurora Borealis 51; of 1716; Halley studies the nebulae and ponders 53; cosmological vastness; 3 Could a Comet Have Caused Noah’s Flood? ; Changing views about comets, 1580–1720 57; Dr Robert Hooke takes comets into the chemical 59; laboratory in 1677; Comets tamed at last: 1680–1705 61; Noah’s Flood, the ancient earth, comets, 62; and the saltiness of the sea; Edmond Halley: the Astronomer Royal 64; and the longitude, 1720–42; Religion and politics, a merry life and a 69; sudden death; 4 “Let there be more light.” How Telescope Technology ; Became the Arbiter in Cosmological Research; Long telescopes on tall poles 73; All done with mirrors: the early reflecting telescope 77; John Hadley and his Newtonian 79; reflecting telescope; A golden guinea an inch: James Short turns the 81; reflecting telescope into big business; John Dollond “perfects” the refracting telescope 84; c. 1760; “Every gentleman must have one!” 86; Benjamin Martin, lecturer, and entrepreneur; makes scientific instruments fashionable; 5 The Rector and the Organist: Gravity, Star Clusters, ; and the Origins of the Milky Way; Thomas Wright of Durham and eighteenth-century 89; speculative cosmologies; The Revd John Michell: the Pleiades Cluster, “dark 91; stars”, and gravitational “black holes” in 1783; Charles Messier: comet hunter and nebula 93; cataloguer of the Ancien Régime in Paris; The enterprising oboist: Herschel comes 94; to England; Herschel the fashionable church organist 97; and musical impresario of Bath; From organ pipes to telescopes, from acoustics 98; to optics, and on to cosmology; Bath, 13 March 1781: William Herschel 100; discovers a “comet”; 6 William and Caroline Herschel Fathom the 104 ; “Construction of the Heavens” from an English; Country Garden; William Herschel’s telescope technology 106; Observing with a Herschel telescope 107; Stars, the Milky Way, and the “Construction of 109; the Heavens” after 1784; “Oh Herschel! Oh Herschel! Where do you fly? 112; To sweep the cobwebs out of the sky”; “Shining fluids”, glowing rings of light, star 113; clusters, and gravity: the Herschelian universe; Observatory House, 1784: an account by a 116; visiting French savant; Sir William Herschel, Knight Guelph 118; A Herschel telescope postscript 119; 7 Measuring the Heavens and the Earth in Eighteenth- ; Century Europe; Part 1: In Pursuit of Venus: Astronomy’s First Great; International Adventure; In pursuit of the solar parallax 122; Venus in transit, June 1761 125; Venus transits the sun in 1769 129; Le Gentil and the 1769 transit 133; Practical observation, Venus, and the longitude 134; 8 Measuring the Heavens and the Earth in Eighteenth- ; Century Europe; Part 2: Pendulums, Planets, and Gravity: Creating; the Science of Geodesy; The curious behaviour of M. Richer’s clock: 140; Cayenne, Brazil, 1672; Geophysics by degrees and the shape of the earth 142; The Astronomer Royal, the mountain, and 147; the village fiddler; Geophysics goes to the laboratory: 149; Henry Cavendish and the torsion balance; experiment, 1797–98; 9 Cosmology and the Romantic Age 152 ; From daffodil fields to starry fields: a universe of 152; awe and wonder; Laws of wonder: Herschel, Laplace, 153; and the laws of gravitation; Mysteries beyond the spectrum: 156; Sir William Herschel discovers the “dark; spectrum” in 1800; Science for Georgian ladies and gentlemen 157; The London physician, the Bavarian orphan, 160; and the wonders of light; Professor Bessel and the distance of the stars 163; Caroline the comet hunter 166; 10 Sir John Herschel: The Universal Philosopher of 168 ; the Age; John Frederick William Herschel: a genius 168; in the making; John Herschel inherits the cosmological 170; “family business”; Optics, chemistry, photography, and a gift 172; for friendship; Slough, marriage, then the Cape of 174; Good Hope; The Herschel cosmos of 1850 178; The size of the stars and their absolute brightness 180; Sir 11 There Must Be Somebody Out There! 184 ; A fascination with “aliens” 184; The Revd Dr Thomas Dick of Broughty 186; Ferry, Dundee; New York, August 1835, and the 188; “Great Lunar Hoax”; Jules Verne: from the earth to the moon in 1865 191; Pity the poor Martians dying of thirst: 1877 193; The Martians turn nasty 195; So is there really anybody out there? 196; 12 Mary Somerville: Mathematician, Astronomer, and 198 ; Gifted Science Communicator; Miss Mary Fairfax, the independent-minded 198; admiral’s daughter; Two contrasting husbands 200; Continental travel and international 201; mathematical fame; Mary Somerville, astronomy, and the Herschels 202; Early mathematical and physical works 205; Mary Somerville, the physical sciences expositor 206; On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences, 208; Physical Geography, and On Molecular and; Microscopic Science; Natural laws, religion, and her final voyage 211; 13 Sir George Biddell Airy of Greenwich: Astronomer 212 ; Royal to the British Empire; Sir George Biddell Airy (1801–92): 213; early life and achievements; New instruments, chronometers, time, 217; and the electric telegraph; Airy the scientific civil servant 222; Airy and the discovery of Neptune, 1846 223; The Astronomer Royal and his staff 225; John Herschel, the universal philosopher 182; 14 Barristers, Brewers, Peers, and Engineers: Paying for 228 ; Astronomical Research: the British “Grand Amateur”; Tradition; Funding astronomy in Great Britain: 228; the roots of a tradition; The Grand Amateur astronomical world 231; The Liverpool brewer and the Manchester 234; steam-engine builder; The Irish nobleman who discovered the 240; “whirlpools” of deep space; The Royal Astronomical Society: 246; a Grand Amateur creation; Postscript: Grand Amateur astronomy today 247; 15 The Camera Does Not Lie: The Birth of ; Astronomical Photography; Monsieur Louis Daguerre, Sir John Herschel, 249; and Mr William Henry Fox Talbot; Dr John William Draper of New York: 252; the first astronomical photographer; The “miracle” of the “wet collodion” 253; photograph, 1851; Warren De La Rue: the Guernsey-born paper 255; manufacturer and pioneer of; astronomical photography; The first “custom-designed” photographic 258; telescope; James Nasmyth’s The Moon (1874): 260; photographing the moon at second hand; The “dry gelatin” plate and new possibilities 262; Isaac Roberts: photographer of the galaxies 262; 16 Unweaving the Rainbow ; Part 1: Sunlight, Sunspot Cycles, and Magnetic; Storms 266; Understanding the Sun, Our Nearest Star 266; The great solar storm of 1859 268; “Rice grains”, “granules”, and the solar surface 270; Solar knowledge by 1860: a résumé 271; 17 Unweaving the Rainbow ; Part 2: Cosmologists and Catholic Priest Pioneers; of Astro
• Publisher Details: Oxford : Lion Books
• Publication Date: 2018
• Extent: 1 online resource, illustrations
• Subjects: 520.9; Astronomy -- History
• Languages: English
• ISBNs: 9780745980300
• Related ISBNs: 9780745980294; 9780745980317
• Notes: Note: Description based on CIP data; resource not viewed.
• Access Rights: Legal Deposit; Only available on premises controlled by the deposit library and to one user at any one time; The Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations (UK).
• Access Usage: Restricted: Printing from this resource is governed by The Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations (UK) and UK copyright law currently in force.